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The one-off

May 6, 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

All we need, as a global community of 7.7 billion people, is a hero. I use that word generically, without reference to gender, race, or, even, species particularly – could be a whale – but I will say, this hero must be a good communicator. 

A good communicator may mean communication outside of language as we know it; a being who can reach all of us on a less superficial level; can speak to us, everyone, to the inside of our minds and beings, where we understand things completely.

So much for Twitter, that most inadequate of communicating, albeit that leading politicians have actually taken to running their governments, their foreign policies with tweets.

An end to money ruling the world and an end to war being a tool for profit at the cost of much more than money: millions of miserable lives, drifting like so much flotsam on the seas of humanity. An end to so much more.

This hero might come as a mistake, completely unexpected but, somehow inevitable. Like winning the lottery, we can only hope. Not enough people believe in magic. Lots of people don’t believe in anything. Likely, as a result of a cataclysmic occurrence that kills off enough “important” people, something that actually stops us in our tracks, something that makes us realize the oil industry is done, the money for space travel must go to healing the earth…

It is only logical to assume that, in all this unending universe, there are many other life forms living on other planets – we can’t really imagine. I suspect we are watched, with horror, I hope, by those with technology that would place us as primitive as cave dwellers. The insane destructiveness and our hostility to each other that seem to dominate our collective personality – with any luck – appalls them. Yet, maybe, just maybe, they can see well enough into us to understand our goodness, our creativity. Those virtues might inspire the watchers to produce a hero, not an extra-terrestrial entity, an earthling; one of us.

I know, I know, there is a familiar ring to this speculation – is this me taking the Mickey, being disrespectful? No. This is not my plan.

This hero cannot be sacrificed, not be compliant, not a martyr. This hero must stand and lead and heal in a completely hands on, realistic way. 

We earthlings must be gathered together to understand our total commonality: humanity with every other species on this planet. 

A friend of mine recently told me about a documentary he watched that demonstrated how quickly the ice caps are melting. The rapid acceleration of the ice melting will definitely raise the level of the seas and coastal cities will drown. A simple truth. The world is round. Climate change is a disaster.

My friend said, “It was very frightening.” If he was shown how changing his life in profound ways would definitely help to stop disaster, would he make those changes? On a personal level, would any of us?

No matter the evidence, the proof all around us every minute of our lives, it seems we cannot do this on our own. It could be, we simply cannot admit our basic failings, our fundamental flaws. So, we cling to our mistakes like the abusive partner in a marriage: “So what if I lose my temper once in a while?!”

Probably: we have to change who and what we are, since we became sentient: discovering fire, creating the wheel, painting running deer on our home cave walls. Bashing each other on the head, fighting for land or food or because it feels so good to kill.

We have to be shown how to reach the inner soul of us that is wise, creative on many levels, humane, loving. That is the hero’s job: to inspire this entire humanity all at once, like a tsunami of love.

I guess it has to be love. That is the best part of us that is powerful enough to sweep away everything in its path. Love carries an element of lust with it – a lust for things to be better, be beautiful. That lust is what makes love stronger than any other motive for action.

If we went to Mars, we sure would change. I heard an interview on the CBC with a scientist, who talked about actually breeding a genetically modified human of a different shape and structure, who could survive better on Mars than we will be able to, due to the difference of gravity on the red planet.

Apparently, there is no end to the nonsense but no serious will to save our own planet.

There is such a strong movement to halt the damage to our environment. Sadly, none of the serious voices are coming from industry’s leaders and not from political leaders. It is all pie in the sky if we’re still building pipelines and opening coal mines. 

In spite of the end in sight, no one that can really stop it all loves enough to say it, to do it.

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